The Korea Herald : The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper
リンク: The Korea Herald : The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper.
| 'N.K. plans to test nukes' | |||
From news reports North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is determined to conduct an underground test of his country's nuclear weapons and has made his intention clear to Russian and Chinese diplomats in Pyongyang, a British newspaper reported Sunday. "Russian diplomats believe it is now highly probable that North Korea will officially join the nuclear club by carrying out its first underground test of an atomic device," the Telegraph reported on its website. The report also said the reclusive leader has reportedly "made clear his intention" during a recent meeting with diplomats from Russia and China, North Korea's closest allies. The report comes amid concerns that the communist state may be preparing an underground test at a suspected testing site on its east coast. Earlier reports said a U.S. intelligence agency has spotted suspicious vehicle movements near the underground testing site, suggesting an imminent nuclear test. Pyongyang declared that it has nuclear arms early last year, but has yet to conduct any known tests. The head of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, Kim Seung-kyu, said late last month that his agency believes the communist state is capable of testing a nuclear weapon "at any time" as its testing facilities are always on standby. The U.S. State Department warned last week that a nuclear test would be "deeply provocative" and that such an act "would only add to and deepen their isolation." "North Korea needs to listen to the world and what the world is telling it," Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the State Department, said in a daily press briefing in Washington Saturday. Both the United States and South Korea have been trying to persuade North Korea to abandon its atomic ambitions through multilateral negotiations, which are also attended by China, Japan and Russia. But the communist state has been refusing to attend the talks since November, citing what it claims to be a hostile U.S. policy toward it. Quoting an unidentified Russian diplomat, the Telegraph said the North Korean leader is "irritated" by U.S. sanctions imposed on a Macau bank late last year for allegedly helping the North launder counterfeit U.S. dollars. "We would encourage the North Korean regime to act in a constructive, responsible manner (and) set a date to come back to the six-party talks," McCormack. North Korea stoked regional tension in early July by test-firing seven ballistic missiles in what it claimed to be regular military drills.
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